How Monitoring Current Events Like the 2020 US Election Can Increase Organizational Security

There are numerous threats that could evolve to seriously impact an organization, from natural disasters, to acts of terror, to targeted attacks on executives. Currently though, tensions around the US election are high on both ends of the political spectrum. There has been an increase in polarization of political views and even militarization of the public in recent months, and many Signal customers have expressed concern.

For many American’s this is seen as the most important election of their lives so far. Fears of voter fraud and voter suppression are rife, which is reflected by an unprecedented number of early votes being cast with more than 90 million votes already cast a week before the election, more than two-thirds of all the votes cast in 2016.

This, paired with a deadly pandemic and a summer of protests, many of which became violent, and one can see the potential for civil unrest around a contentious presidency. To mitigate this risk organizations need relevant intelligence as events unfold to ensure they take the necessary precautions to protect their employees and assets.

As such, we have created advanced tools to enable Organizations to be alerted as early as possible to issues and current events, such as the Election, where the possible fallout could have an impact on their employees and assets.

Monitoring Election Threats in Real-Time Using Signal OSINT

Using Signal security teams can learn of events as they are happening or even before they happen, allowing effective response plans to be enacted, effectively neutralising potential threats. 

To do this users can create custom searches using Boolean Logic to filter intel from key web sources such as social media, the open web, and the dark web. Intel from these sources often acts as an early indicator alerting Signal customer to potential issues in real-time. The data can also be reviewed by our emotional analysis solution for increased data analysis efficiency.

Signal has real-time SMS and email alerting for high-risk threats so that companies can maximise available response time. Once alerted to potential risks the security team can form a final judgement on the threat level and decide whether action needs to be taken.

Final Words on Threat Monitoring with Signal

Threat monitoring isn’t just for events such as a contentious election. COVID-19, earthquakes, storms and other extreme weather events, and even threats of violence against specific executives, can all affect an organization. Signal OSINT software enables security teams to scan a vast number of surface, deep, and dark web channels and sources to gain real-time data on a broad array of emerging threats. 

Anonymous social media forums like 4chan or dark web forums are often where threat actors go to communicate and organize. And social media is often where you can learn of current events as they unfold. So whether it’s customer data for sale online, or an active shooter situation in-store, security teams armed with OSINT can quickly assess and respond appropriately to mitigate risks and damages.

Only when an organisation has a complete picture that incorporates the variety of potential risks and has invested in specific responses and contingency plans can it adapt as needed to mitigate the impact of extreme events.

How can 4chan be Used as a Data Source for Security Intelligence?

What is 4chan?

4chan is one of the largest English language based image boards on the open web. They have over 900k new posts per day and some 27 million active monthly users.

What makes it a unique social platform is that users can choose to remain anonymous. They don’t even need to create an account to access and engage with content on the platform. As an added security measures, posts time-out after a period so they can’t, unless found and archived by an independent data gathering source, be checked and referenced by security teams, users, or law enforcement at later date.

There is a wide range of topics hosted on the platform, from Japanese culture, to politics, to adult content. Because of the anonymity allowed, as well as a very limited moderation by the site owners, 4chan has a large amount of illicit content and activity. This activity includes cyberbullying, child pornography, harassment, violent threats, racism and extremist ideologies. 

Despite this, it’s important to note that there is nothing inherently bad about the platform, just as there is nothing inherently bad about the dark web, and many of the users use it for legitimate purposes such as for its original intent which is the exploration and discussion of the Japanese film and television animation style, anime. In fact, like Reddit, many influential memes have originated from the platform such as ‘lolcats’ and ‘chocolate rain’. As such it has historically been an important driving force behind the development of internet culture.

Bottom line: 4chan is a forum, the original purpose was for the discussion of anime and Japanese culture. It’s a forum where users don’t need to have an account or sign up with a name, there is little moderation, and posts are deleted from the server after a period, as such there are few consequences. With this format, people can and do say just about anything on the platform.

How can 4chan benefit your organization as a data source?

The anonymity offered by the channel means users feel comfortable talking openly and they do so around a wide range of subject matters and people. For example, under the political forum /pol/ you can find examples of alt-right groups, threats of violence against a person, organization or group, and racist behaviour.

The range of topics discussed and the freedom with which individuals and groups openly discuss them can give security teams and law enforcement an idea of emerging trends as well as be one of the first places that death threats or threats of violence against individuals and organizations can be found. In the past, terrorist manifestos have also been posted on the channel. These discussions can indicate when an event is going to evolve into a tangible threat and give security teams a heads up to prepare and mitigate the potential threat.

Additionally, there are groups and individuals on the channel, such as the members of Anonymous who have turned their online attention, for right or wrong, to intelligence gathering on people and organizations. Often, 4chan is one of the first places they share their findings. For example, they might uncover and share personal details about a CEO such as their address, medical records and details of their family.

Why use Signal for monitoring 4chan?

One of the key problems with any form of online intelligence reconnaissance is the quantities of data you need to assess to get even the smallest tidbits of potentially useful information. 4chan has this problem in spades with over 3.5 billion posts. And these posts are transient, with the more R rated the post being the shorter it’s existence. This means relevant security intelligence on the 4chan platform might only be public for a couple of days. To gain real insights into the channel you need to be constantly and efficiently monitoring with real-time alerts.

4chan is just one of the data sources you can monitor using Signal though. You can simultaneously monitor the open, deep, and dark web including forums like Reddit and chatrooms like Telegram. Our system allows you to create tailored keyword-driven searches with boolean logic which is assisted by our machine learning and language processing AI to efficiently gain intel on hyper-relevant, new and emerging threats.

Why organizations need threat intelligence tools as part of their security defences

What is Threat Intelligence?

Those very same technologies that have allowed globalization, which have brought us all closer together and enabled organizations and brands to achieve the current growth and success they enjoy today, have simultaneously brought with them increased risks. These risks come in the form of increased vulnerabilities and exploitable attack vectors for cyber attackers. Threat intelligence is all about gathering data and knowledge to combat and mitigate these threats. 

Threat intelligence provides organizations with information and context required to effectively predict and even prevent cyberattacks. Additionally, it helps inform security teams of the best practice for both preventative measures and response measures to ensure if there is a cyberattack the resulting costs are minimal. 

In short, threat intelligence is the gathering of evidence-based knowledge to inform action-oriented preventative and reactionary responses to an ever-evolving cyber threat landscape.

The Importance of Threat Intelligence

Threat actors are increasingly persistent, and their persistence pays off. Even the most dedicated professionals can’t help but struggle to keep abreast of every new cybersecurity development. New exploits are constantly being discovered or developed and strategies such as social engineering are increasing in complexity. Security teams need up to date data and intelligence on evolving threats if they are going to be able to develop effective responses.

Additionally, within the corporate world one of the key buzzwords of the last two decades has been “accessibility”. Accessibility to data means organizations have necessarily become reliant on digital processes and almost everything is stored on the cloud. Unfortunately, while accessibility is essential to developing efficient processes, and effectively using big data, it also increases the number of threat vectors that attackers can exploit. According to the IBM 2020 data breach report the longer a data breach goes undetected the more expensive it ends up being for the organization. Primarily then, threat intelligence gathered using tools like Signal OSINT can help organizations detect data breaches earlier, mitigating the eventual costs both reputational and monetary.

The final reason that threat intelligence plays such a pivotal role in today’s security is the distinct lack of skilled cybersecurity professionals. Threat intelligence is a time-consuming business that requires a skilled deft hand to manage. The best threat intelligence solutions use machine learning to automate data collection, then filter and structure data from disparate sources to present only hyper-relevant information to a skilled security team for final analysis. The security team can then use this data to create effective actionable plans based on evidential knowledge. This approach optimizes the performance of both the cybersecurity professional and the intelligence tools being used.

Threat intelligence is actionable — it’s timely, provides context, and is able to be understood by the people in charge of making decisions.

Use Case Examples for Threat Intelligence 

Threat intelligence can be used in a diverse range of strategies which makes it an essential tool for security teams in any organization. It’s most immediate value is in helping prevent an attack by gathering intel on threats in real-time, however, it’s also useful for a broad scope of activities such as managing vulnerabilities, informing decision making, and responding to attacks as or after they happen.

Related: The Role of Threat Intelligence and Cybersecurity in Retail

Prevent an attack

From the time that a vulnerability is found to the time an exploit targeting that vulnerability is available for threat actors is shortening. Security professionals need to know about the vulnerability fast so that they can implement a patch and prevent it from being exploited.

Respond to a Data Breach

Data breaches are costly and often go unnoticed. With the right threat intelligence tools you can determine when a data breach happens fast and take suitable actions to mitigate the costs of any following repercussions.

Manage a Vulnerability

The approach of “patch everything, all the time” is impractical and will likely see organizations fall behind - leaving more serious vulnerabilities open for longer. Threat intelligence can help security teams effectively manage vulnerabilities by giving the salient data to allow them to prioritize patches based on actual risk. 

Risk Analysis

This leads on nicely from the last point. Threat intelligence can help security teams determine the actual risks associated with potential vulnerabilities or attacks by providing additional contextual information. For example, threat intelligence can help security professionals  answer the following questions:

• Which threat actors are using this attack, and do they target our industry?

• How often has this specific attack been observed recently by enterprises like ours?

• Which vulnerabilities does this attack exploit, and are those vulnerabilities present in our enterprise?

• What kind of damage, technical and financial, has this attack caused in enterprises like ours?

Fraud Prevention

Fraud can encompass anything from a fraudulent use of your brand, data, or even impersonation of your employees. For example, an individual might impersonate a doctor and sell fake versions of your prescription medication online.

Incident Response

Having the ability to gather and filter through threat intelligence from across the surface, deep, and dark web in real-time allows security teams to effectively and appropriately respond to incidents as they are happening.

How can Signal threat intelligence improve your organization’s security?

Signal allows our customers to analyze emerging global trends, detect threats in real-time, and then form appropriate security strategies to counter these potential threats as or even before they fully reveal themselves.

One of the key issues that security teams and analysts face is the sheer amount of noise that might surround their brand. Invariably much of this noise is irrelevant to their purposes, however, some of it will be bad. This is why Signal assists with advanced filters with boolean logic as well as features such as our emotional analysis tool.

The Increasing Risks and Rising Costs of Data Breaches

Data Breaches Aren’t Uncommon 

It’s not just small companies with limited security budgets that have exploitable cyber gaps. Often, in fact, large organizations become targets because of the amount and nature of the data that they hold. Organizations in the healthcare sector, for example, have proven time and again to be a popular targets for cybercriminals.

Another example of a large organization being targeted is Experian. Experian experienced a major data breach in August 2020 where over 24 million records were exposed. The attackers impersonated a client and were able to request and obtain confidential data. Experian claimed that no customer banking information was exposed. Even so, personal information like this could be used in a targeted social engineering strategy to then get Experian customers to reveal further sensitive information such as their banking details.

This isn’t the first major data breach that Experian has had. Back in 2015, 15 million North American customers and applicants had their personal data, including Social Security numbers and ID details, stolen. Perhaps because of this prior experience, Experian understands the risks and are adept at dealing with cyber breaches. They claim that the attacker’s hardware has already been seized and the collected data secured and deleted.

How Much Does the Average Data Breach Cost?

The answer to this question varies between country and is additionally dependent on the sector but in general, can span anywhere from $1.25 million to $8.19 million.

According to the 2020 report from IBM and the Ponemon Institute the average cost of a data breach in 2020 is down 1.5% since 2019 and cost around $3.58 million USD. This works out to be around $150 per record and is a 10% rise over the last 5 years. The report analyzes recent breaches at more than 500 organizations to spot trends and developments in security risks and best practices.

The cost estimate includes a combination of direct and indirect costs related to time and effort in dealing with a breach, lost opportunities such as customer churn as a result of bad publicity, and regulatory fines. Though the average cost of a breach is relatively unchanged, IBM says the costs are getting smaller for prepared companies and much larger for those that don’t take any precautions.

Interestingly, various industries including healthcare appear to be more susceptible targets for attackers. According to the report, healthcare breaches cost organizations $6.45 million per breach, a number that eclipses all other sectors and makes it the ninth year in a row that healthcare organizations have had the highest costs associated with a data breach.

The average cost for per breached healthcare record ($429) is more than double any other industry too and substantially higher than the average, $150, according to the report. Healthcare breaches can often take the longest to identify (up to 236 days) as well.

Data Breaches are Happening all the Time

Data breaches are occurring constantly. Records from large brands with big security budgets and teams as well as much smaller organizations. It’s important that everyone understand the importance of secure digital practices and explores strategies for educating staff to reduce the risk of social engineering tactics.

Source: Webhose.io

How do Data Breaches Occur?

Hackers use various strategies to gain access to data. For example, with Experian the attacker leveraged human weakness through social engineering to persuade an employee to give them the data. Other strategies could be exploiting weaknesses such as a misconfigured or unsecured cloud storage. Alternatively a data breach could be the result of a malicious malware or ransomware. 

According to the IBM/Ponemon report around 40% of all incidents were actually due to either cloud misconfigurations or stolen login details. Because of this IBM has urged companies to reexamine their authentication protocol to ensure 2FA is active.

A final note on the ascertaining of data by attackers is around state-sponsored attacks. State-sponsored attacks only make up around 13% of the overall number of attacks according to the report. However, with an average associated cost of around $4.43 million it’s clear that these types of attacks tend to target high-value data and this results in a more extensive compromise of victims' environments.

The energy sector, commonly targeted by nation-states, saw a 14% increase in breach costs when compared to the prior-year period, with an average breach cost of $6.39 million.

How can Organisations Reduce the Cost of Data Breaches?

“The average time to identify and contain a data breach, or the "breach lifecycle," was 280 days in 2020. Speed of containment can significantly impact breach costs, which can linger for years after the incident.” - Source 

By having mitigation measures in place IBM/Ponemon estimate companies can reduce the cost of a breach by an average of $720,000. 

According to their report those companies which had automated technologies deployed experienced around half the cost of a breach ($2.65 million on average) compared to those that did not have these technologies deployed ($5.16 million average). 

Security response times were also reported to be ‘significantly shorter’ for companies with fully deployed security automation – these companies are as much as 27% faster than their counterparts at responding to breaches.

Security tools like OSINT platforms not only enable a faster breach response but a significantly more cost-efficient one as well, which as the security professional shortage persists is of absolute importance.

Signal OSINT platform gives you hyper-relevant real time alerts from surface, deep, and dark web sources.

Final Thoughts

With our increasing levels of digitisation, our growing reliance on the cloud, and the complexity of security systems paired with human error there are more attack vectors than ever before for hackers to exploit. 

A data breach could involve anything from publicly available data being scraped and sold off to spammers, to online banking and credit card information being stolen. The longer a data breach goes undetected the longer the threat actors have to utilize this data causing more harm as time goes on.

Having the right tools and processes in place will allow you to detect data breaches early or even prevent a data breach from happening in the first place. With the steadily rising cost associated with data breaches, this could save an organization millions in the long run.

6 Ways Signal OSINT is Improving Protection for Executives and VIPs

High profile executives and VIPs are more likely to receive threats of violence, be at the centre of negative online noise, and to be the target for both cyber and physical attacks. This, when paired with their busy schedules (which often involve travel), makes staying ahead of potential threats a particular challenge for their security teams. 

Attackers have a variety of reasons and goals for targeting executives and VIPs. It could be anything ranging from a reaction to company layoffs, to kidnapping for ransom. Whatever the reason though, security teams need to be able to spot the threats, understand the motives, and implement an effective response in a timely fashion.

In this article, we take a look at 6 key ways Signal OSINT is used today by customers to advance protection measures for high profile executives.

How Can Signal OSINT Improve your Executive Security?

Discover private information published online

There are several reasons that an individual might publish private information online. Often, it is in anger or as some form of revenge. The kind of information that has been found published online includes: names, email addresses and logins, physical address, details about an executives families, passport details, medical information, credit card and bank details, and SSN’s.

Having such information leaks opens up an executive to a wide range of potential threats. As a security professional, it is vital to know if and when there is a data breach so that the threat can be neutralized. The longer data is available online the more risk there is. For example, if card details are discovered online the bank can be contacted and the card cancelled.

Read: Detecting and Mitigating the Risks of Data Breaches 

Identify direct threats

Sometimes threat actors are more direct in the way they threaten executives. This could, for example, be a direct threat of violence through an email, instant messaging service or public forum like social media. While the majority of such threats come from so-called “keyboard warriors” there are some which will require further attention and action. 

For example, discussions might be uncovered on the dark web forum with details of a planned attack on an executive. With the prior knowledge of the attack action can be taken to reduce the associated risks.

One way to differentiate between someone that is simply venting their anger on a public forum and someone who genuinely might take action is to look for repetition of negative sentiment.

Emotional analysis

Emotional analysis gives data extra context which allows it to be better understood enabling a more effective and accurate response to the potential risks. 

It also allows you to differentiate between when a negative comment is simply that, a negative comment, or when it needs more serious attention, for example, it’s evolving into a physical threat.

Read: When Does Negative Sentiment Become a Threat? 

Misinformation is spreading about an executive

The spread of disinformation is problematic on a number of levels. For example, throughout COVID-19 misinformation has been spread regarding the virus, it’s root causes and best prevention practices. This has harmed efforts to curtail and control it. Another recent example is the role of misinformation in the 2016 US election. 

There are numerous reasons that individuals and organizations spread misinformation, it could be part of a phishing campaign or an international political assault, for example. Whatever the reason the results are almost always harmful. When an individual spreads misinformation around a CEO or other executive there are real ramifications for brand and reputation which need to be managed.

To combat misinformation organizations need to be equipped with the right tools and understand both what they’re looking for, and the reasons for spreading misinformation.

Disruptive events are planned which could prove a threat to executives.

Events such as protests planned at or near an office or manufacturing location could present logistical problems and delays as well as potentially devolve into riots which would represent a physical threat. Having intelligence on the events and any salient information regarding individuals or groups looking to create trouble will allow you to take appropriate precautionary measures and prevent a threat from escalating.

Travel risks

All travel comes with some inherent risk. However, it is more pronounced for executives who are at increased risk due to the regularity of their travel and high profile.

Additionally, events like extreme weather or terrorist action may make a destination unsafe. As such, having an OSINT solution such as Signal offering an early warning of any particular dangers will enable you to plan alternative routes and otherwise avoid high risk scenarios.

Read: 4 Aspects of Effective Executive Travel Risk Management 

Early warnings with real-time data

Using Signal you can create customized alerts filtered via specific keywords, phrases or even locations. We also have a built-in translation tool so that data can be searched across languages and automatically translated into your default language.

Additionally, you can run alerts through our emotional analysis tool to determine how much of a threat any particular alert is. Finally, get our optional Sapphire bolt-on and utilise our skilled data analysts to further refine your results. 

This approach allows your leave your intelligence gathering on autopilot and not only effectively reduce costs but vastly increase the scope of your monitoring ability and the overall amount of hyper-relevant intelligence at your fingertips. All of this allows you to gather actionable intel in realtime.

Find out more about Executive Protect with Signal…

What is Ransomware and Why Should you Care?

Ransomware is big money and is a rapidly growing cyberattack strategy. The market has expanded massively since the advent of secure and untraceable payment methods such as Bitcoin. Emsisoft estimates that ransomware costs for US organizations in 2019 was in excess of $7.5 billion. Compare this to four years prior when in 2015 ransomware damages totalled around $300 million.

Some markets are particularly prone to ransomware attacks such as medical organizations and public services. And there have been several high profile cases involving these industries over the last few years. Attackers know that with lives literally on the line organizations in these fields are likely to simply pay the ransom to make the problem go away. Most recently Garmin technology company has been held to ransom with attackers using the WastedLocker ransomware seeking a ransom of USD$10 million.

In this article, we explore in detail what ransomware is, how cybercriminals utilize and what strategies organizations can employ to ensure they are protected from ransomware attacks.  

What is Ransomware?

Ransomware is a form of malware. It can take various forms but generally it functions in one of two ways:

• Crypto ransomware. This malware encrypts the files on a computer so that the user cannot access them.

• Locker ransomware. This malware locks the victim out of their device or out of particular files, preventing them from using it. 

One thing all ransomware attacks have in common is that the target won’t be able to regain access to their files unless they pay the attackers a hefty ransom to unlock the files.

Ransomware has grown in popularity over the last few years in the wake of cryptocurrencies which makes it safe to receive their ransom payments. The cost of a ransomware attack can range from a few hundred to thousands of dollars depending on who the target is and how valuable the attackers believe the files they have locked out of reach are. 

Probably the most common delivery system for ransomware is phishing scams. For examples, a virus masquerading as an email attachment can, once downloaded and opened, easily take over a victims computer. Another strategy is through social engineering which is growing in popularity with cybercriminals because of the better strike rate. A recent example of a successful social engineering attack was perpetrated against Twitter employees. Attackers were able to get aways with an estimated 12.85BTC, nearly US$120,000.

The encryption strategy for malware is the more common of the attacks. The result of this attack is that the victim will not be able to decrypt their files without a mathematical key known only to the attacker. The user will be presented with a message when they attempt to open their files saying that their documents are now inaccessible and will only be decrypted if the victim sends an untraceable cryptocurrency payment to the attacker’s wallet.

To encourage prompt payment attackers might masquerade as law enforcement and demand the payment as a fine. If the victim does have illegal or illicit files or programs on their device, such as pornography or pirated software or movies, then they may be more likely to pay without asking questions and without reporting the attack.

12 Ransomware Examples from the Last Decade

Ransomware has been around for decades. However, it was only after the advent of cryptocurrencies that it began being a favoured strategy for cybercriminals. Cryptocurrencies allow for them to collect untraceable completely anonymous payments. Some of the worst offenders have been:

• CryptoLocker is an older malware threat, and while it isn’t in broad circulation anymore during it’s peak it infected some half a million machines. Cryptolocker is a Trojan horse that infects a device computer and then searches the computer as well as additional connected media including; external hardrives, cloud storage, and USB sticks, for files to encrypt. 

• TeslaCrypt is a variation or copycat of CryptoLocker. TeslaCrypt started by using social engineering to infiltrate devices and later used phishing emails as well. It heavily targeted gaming files and saw numerous upgrade improvements during its reign of terror.

• SimpleLocker was another CyrptoLocker styled malware. However, it’s key difference was that it focused it’s targeting on Android devices.

• WannaCry is a ransomware worm. What this means is that it spreads autonomously from computer to computer using EternalBlue, an exploit developed by the NSA and then stolen by hackers.

• NotPetya also used the EternalBlue exploit. It is thought to be part of a Russion-directed cyberattack against the Ukraine. However, it expanded autonomously to infect a broad range of organizations.

• Leakerlocker was first discovered in 2017 and targeted Android devices. Rather than encrypt files, it threatens to share your private data and browsing history unless you pay the ransom.

• WYSIWYE, stands for “What You See Is What You Encrypt”. Discovered in 2017, this ransomware scans the web for open Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) servers. It then allows for a customized attack with an interface through which it can be configured according to the attacker’s preferences.

• SamSam has been around since 2015 and has affected devices in a number of waves of attacks. It utilizes vulnerabilities in remote desktop protocols (RDP), Java-based web servers, file transfer protocol (FTP) servers or brute force against weak passwords It would then spread to numerous devices. It primarily targeted public services and healthcare effectively bringing entire organizations to halt.

• Ryuk first appeared in 2018. It is specifically used to target enterprise environments. It is often used in combination with other malware like TrickBot for distribution.

• Maze was first discover in 2019. The MAZE ransomware has been used in attacks that combine targeted ransomware use, public exposure of victim data, and an affiliate model. The ransomware was initially distributed via spam emails and exploit kits before later shifting to being deployed post-compromise.

• GandCrab currently holds a large portion of the ransomware market and may well be the most lucrative ransomware ever. Its developers, which sold the program to cybercriminals, claim more than $2 billion in victim payouts as of July 2019.

• Thanos is a Ransomware-as-a-Service (RaaS) operation which allows affiliates to customize their own ransomware through a builder offered by the developer. It was first discovered by security professionals being talked about on a Russian darknet forum. It is the first to use the RIPlace technique, which can bypass many anti-ransomware methods.  

Dealing with Ransomware

Prevention is always the best policy when it comes to dealing with cyber attacks. Using tools such as Signal you can stay up to date with the most common strategies and one step ahead of cybercriminals. However, if you become the victim of a ransomware attack, it is advisable not to pay the ransom. If you do so there is now guarantee that the cybercriminal will return your data, they are thieves after all. Additionally, it fuels the profitability of the ransomware business making future attacks more likely. So what can you do?

Decryption

For many ransomwares, especially the older ones there are decryption tools which have been developed. The first step then is to contact your internet security vendor and determine if decryption is possible. If this initial strategy fails you can visit nomoreransom.org. The No More Ransom site is an industry-wide initiative designed to help all victims of ransomware.

Recovery

It’s good practice to back-up your data regularly on both external hard drives as well as on cloud storage. If you have done this it becomes possible to simply recover the data which is currently being held hostage. There are of course some scenarios where this won’t be possible, for example, if the malicious actor is threatening to share private information rather than having simply encrypted your device.

Preventing Ransomware Attacks

Good security practices will help prevent you from falling victim to ransomware. These defensive steps will additionally help protect you against other generic cyber attacks. 

Four basic steps that every organization should take to mitigate the threat of cyber attacks are:

• Keep all operating systems up to date and patched. Doing this will ensure that there are few potential vulnerabilities that malicious actors can exploit.

• Do not allow a software admin privileges unless you are confident in its safety and know exactly what it is and what it does.

• Ensure you have an active and up to date anti-virus software installed on all devices. This will allow you to detect and block malicious programs like ransomware as they arrive.

• And, as we said in the section above, back up all your files regularly. This last point won’t help protect against ransomware or other malware but can help mitigate the damages that your organization might suffer.

The Role of OSINT in Defending Against Ransomware

While open source intelligence tools can’t prevent ransomware, they can help organizations mitigate the potential damages. 

Securing the supply chain

Supply chains can stretch across continents with potentially hundreds of suppliers and manufacturers all around the world bearing responsibility. Should any single part or resource be in short supply, then assembly lines can be brought to a halt resulting in costly delays at the very least. 

There are numerous threats to the supply chain, one of which is malware and in particular regard to this article, ransomware. A key example of this is when the shipping giant Maersk had their IT systems taken out by a malware NotPetya. This resulted in their IT systems being down for days and many deliveries being delayed despite Herculean logistical efforts by the company. 

Using OSINT tools you can learn whether an organization on your supply chain has been affected by ransomware in real-time which will allow you to take the necessary actions to mitigate the damage this has as their production or logistics is slowed.

Industry Targeting

It’s not unusual for malware to exploit weaknesses which are specific to an industry. For example, the Healthcare industry is particularly susceptible to ransomware as a delay in returning their operations to normal could result in patients deaths. Indeed a leading medical-research institution working on a cure for Covid-19 were forced to pay hackers a $1.14m USD ransom because of a ransomware attack.

Using OSINT tools you can monitor your own specific industry to determine what strategies and exploits are currently being used by cybercriminals against like companies. Determining this will allow you to take extra and specific precautions to fend off similar attacks which could potentially be turned on you.

Detect New Ransomware and Strategies

Cybercriminals are continuously evolving and updating their strategies and the ransomware that go with them. We are unlikely to see the end of this development. 

By using OSINT to monitor darknet forums and market places security professionals are able to learn about the newest strategies being employed, the most recent weaknesses being exploited, and the most current software being utilized. Armed with this knowledge they are much more able to develop effective countermeasures as well as actively prevent ransomware infection.

What Security Professionals need to know about Dark Web Forums

The dark web isn’t inherently bad or evil. It’s not illegal to be anonymous on the web. However, the unfortunate truth is that there are plenty of people who are willing to take advantage of the anonymity lent by the dark web and to undertake some form of illicit activity.

Cybercriminals use the dark web as a means to communicate about all manner of activities, from planning cyberattacks to the selling of illegal goods or stolen data.

On top of this, with distrust growing towards governing bodies and large corporations around data privacy dark web communities are thriving. More people are becoming familiar with the dark web for both legitimate and illegitimate reasons, a fact that should cause security professionals increasing concern.

On the flip side, many security professionals actually shy away from the dark web. It is an online region surrounded by an ether of mystery and myth. However, while certain parts of the dark web should only be accessed with the utmost skill and caution, the basics of the dark web need to be understood by all members of the security community.

The difficulties of accessing dark web forums

There are numerous challenges that security professionals face when they come face to face with the dark web. The first of which is actually finding the dark web forums where illicit activity is taking place.

The first step to locationg dark websites is through various directory lists. These easy to locate sites and forums, however, are unlikely to be where the really important things are happening. Instead it’s more likely to be filled with amateurs and more innocent activity. Additionally, these lists often become outdated quickly as dark web domains change frequently.

In order to locate more relevant darknet forums for the purposes of security research, there are strategies which can be employed, for example, snowball sampling.

Snowball sampling is a method which involves creating a web crawler that takes a root URL and crawls the website for outgoing links. Generally, this will then return a large number of dark web URLs. This works particularly well for dark web forums as people often link to other sites in comments or posts. Done incorrectly though could draw attention to your bot and have the admin block you.

The dangers of accessing dark web forums

Accessing the dark web should be done with care and caution. It is in some ways like the last frontier, the wild west. It provides a training ground for new techniques and strategies for experienced and inexperienced hackers alike. For a security professional, getting to know these new techniques is vital for the efficacy of your security strategies.

A few key safety concerns and the dangers of the dark web are as follows:

• Breaking the law. Law enforcement officials operate on the dark web to catch people engaged in criminal activity. Like others on the dark web, law enforcement can do their work under a cloak of anonymity. It’s important to remember that you can be prosecuted for things you do on the dark web and thus to behave in an appropriate and legal manner.  

• Viruses. Unsurprisingly a lot of hackers on the dark web would be more than willing to turn their talents and attention to you should you accidentally cross them. Some websites will infect your device with viruses and any and all links or downloads should be viewed with suspicion. There are a lot of viruses to watch for, from ransomware to spyware and everything in between. Additionally, if you do click any links you may be taken to the material you don’t want to see that many people would find disturbing. 

• Webcam hijacking. It’s smart practice to cover your webcam with a piece of tape or plastic when you’re not using it. This is because some people may attempt to gain access to your device’s webcam by using a remote administration tool (RAT). The risk of this happening increases exponentially when you enter the dark web.

Remember: You use the dark web at your own risk and you should take necessary security precautions such as disabling scripts and using a VPN service.

Why do security professionals need to surveil dark web forums?

We’ve talked about the dangers and difficulties of accessing and finding relevant dark web forums for security research. Why though should accessing these dark web forums be a priority for security professionals and how can one effectively monitor these forums for potential threats?

Identify new hack strategies. 

The dark web is where many cyber criminals go to learn as well as to purchase things like exploit kits. Monitoring the dark web, being able to investigate and understand the methods and mindsets of hackers is essential to enable security professionals to develop counter strategies.

Discover physical threats or plans against your organization or executives.

Terrorist organizations, violent far-right dissenters, and others who intend to commit or openly discuss violence against others can be found on dark web forums. One example of this is the shooting which took place in a mosque in New Zealand on the 15 March 2019 which killed 51 people.

This attack was talked about before and during the attack on forums such as 8chan. Pictures of the weapons that would be used were shared along with a 74 page manifesto. Conversations around the event appeared with numerous like-minded individuals actively in support.

This is an extreme, worst-case scenario. But it absolutely highlights the necessity for security teams to have the tools to effectively monitor dark web forums.

Listen and filter noise around your organization’s name. 

There is a lot of noise on the internet. Inevitably some of it may be about your organization and it’s more than likely that not all of it will be good noise. Because of the nature of dark web forums, there is an increased likelihood of discovering negative noise about or relating to your organization.

With the right tools, such as Signal paired with our emotional analysis tool Spotlight, you can identify persons of interest and more closely monitor future activity around them. 

Additionally, discussions around stolen data for sale, as well as things like exploit kits are often discussed on the dark web. Identifying these threats as soon as they appear will allow you to take appropriate action to mitigate these threats and reduce any potential damages.

Dark web monitoring solutions: Signal OSINT platform

With an ever increasing amount of Cyber activity it is more important than ever for organizations to mitigate the potential risks of cyber threats, attacks, and data breaches. As the traditional Physical Security and Cyber Security worlds converge, Signal cyber feeds provide the ability to expand areas of interest and boost potential Cyber threat intelligence.

Cyber feeds that are accessible with a Signal subscription include:

• Onion/Tor – Anonymous network requiring Tor browser (AKA as Dark Web)

• I2P – Invisible Internet Project

• ZeroNet – decentralized web-like network of peer-to-peer users

• Open Bazaar – a fully decentralized marketplace

• Telegram – a cloud-based instant messaging and voice over IP service

• Discord – a VOIP application and digital distribution platform

• IRC Chat – instant relay chat

The information available on these additional Cyber feeds can help identify a number of potential scenarios including;

• Hacking for hire

• Compromised accounts & servers

• Sale of financial data

• Sale of counterfeit and/or stolen goods

• Money laundering

• Sale and/or publication of personal information such as SSN, email, phone numbers

• Discussions on and/or exposure of data breaches

Related: What is OSINT and how is it used for Corporate Security?

How to Secure your Organization’s Social Media with OSINT Tools

Social media is a powerful tool that allows organizations to reach new audiences, communicate and engage with customers, build brand loyalty, share promotions and ultimately achieve new growth. However, because of the very public nature of it, social media opens up new opportunities for cyber criminals to target an organization.

Companies which don’t take the proper precautions in securing their social media channels could find themselves reeling from unexpected attacks. These attack could implement a wide variety of threat vectors, from employees to malware, and could evolve into serious and costly threats.

In this article, we explore some of the commonly exploited risks that are associated with corporate social media use as well as what a company can do to best mitigate these risks and how Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) can play an important role in preventing and protecting an organization.

The risks of social media for corporate security

Phishing and Scams

Phishing is a predominant attack strategy by cybercriminals with an estimated 90% of incidents and breaches including a phishing element. 

Phishing is defined as social engineering using digital methods for malicious purposes. Generally, the goal is to get the victim to hand over private information such as passwords, banking or credit card information.

In the case of social media, there are numerous forms that phishing can take. For example:

• Impersonation

• Credential theft

• Propagating attacks

• Data dumps

• Romance scams

• Intelligence gathering (for account takeover and spear phishing)

Social media platforms still offer only minimal controls to prevent the further propagation of account takeovers. Additionally, because social accounts typically need to be approved prior to connecting with people, account takeovers allow hackers to utilise trust associated with that account. Which is why it’s important for organizations to understand and prepare responses to these evolving threats.

Human Error

One of the key security weaknesses that many organizations face is human error. Everyone makes mistakes and in today’s digital world it is all too easy for cybercriminals to take advantage of these mistakes. In fact, according to EY Global Information Security Survey, employee weakness was responsible for 20% of all cyber attacks. Something as simple as clicking the wrong link or downloading the wrong file could cause havoc with a company's security systems.

When it comes to social media, one attack vector that many users don’t realize cybercriminals utilise is online challenges and quizzes. These quizzes often ask for or obtain by way of an answer personal information which is then used to hack passwords. 

For example, the answers to a social quiz might require you to give up letters from your mother's maiden name, your date of birth, or your first pet's name. This information combined with the details publicly available on your social media profiles could very easily offer up common password and security question combinations.

Third-party Apps

Even if your company's social media accounts are locked down tight, hackers may be able to gain access to an otherwise secure social media account through vulnerabilities in connected third-party apps.

Imposter Accounts

A cyberattack doesn’t always take the form of a hack. Instead, it is fairly easy for an imposter to create a social media account that looks like it belongs to your organization. This is one reason having a verified account is so valuable.

• LinkedIn’s latest transparency report notes that they took action on 21.6 million fake accounts in just six months.

• Facebook estimates that about 5% of monthly active user accounts are fake.

Impostor accounts can target your customers with fake deals, disinformation, or nefarious links. When a customer is tricked like this, not only does your brand suffer but often the organization is held responsible.

One recent example found on Twitter was a fake account fraudulently collecting money on behalf of President Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign. The account “@realDonaldTrump_” is set up as an almost exact replica of the real Trump’s account with only an underscore at the end of the handle to indicate it is not the real account. And of course, it lacks that tell-tale blue verification tick.

An example of an imposter account being used to fraudulently collect money.

Unsecured Mobile Phones

More than 50% of the time spent online is done through mobile phones. Using social media apps allows us to access and engage on social channels with just a single tap. This is great, as long as you are the one in possession of your phone. However, this ease also creates a security risk. 

Should your phone be stolen and accessed all it takes is one tap for the thief to access your social accounts and then they can message all your connections with phishing or malware attacks or spread disinformation using your accounts.

And, worryingly more than half of people leave their phones unlocked.

Malware and Hacks

By its very nature, social media is about social interaction. For personal accounts, this means interacting with friends or acquaintances online in some form or another. For organizations it means interacting with customers, for celebrities or influencers it means interacting with fans.

This is actually a barrier for many cybercriminals. People are generally distrustful of communications where they have no prior experience with the person or people behind them. 

Generally speaking, strangers on the internet are still strangers and it takes a while to build an audience and gain their trust. For a cybercriminal to utilize social platforms then, they often have to go through a rather troublesome and lengthy process of building this trust. And while there are certainly numerous ways for a cybercriminal to sidestep these issues, if their end goal is to get people to click links or share information then their success rate will obviously be much higher should they originally share from a trusted account. 

Related: The Crucial Role of Social Media Monitoring in Corporate Threat Intelligence

5 actions to securing your companies social media presence

The best policies for social media security operate around prevention. By implementing a few basic social media security protocols organizations can massively reduce the potential threats that social media might otherwise present.

Have a clear social media policy

A clear and properly implemented social media policy is the first place to start. This will allow you to not only protect against security threats but also help prevent bad PR or legal trouble that might ensue should your social media be compromised.

You social media policy should include the following things:

• Outline of your brand guidelines that explain how people are allowed to talk about the company on social media.

• A list of social media activities to avoid, such as the quizzes that we mentioned earlier.

• Guidelines related to copyright and confidentiality

• A guide on the best practices for password management to avoid threats like credential stuffing.

• The expectation that employees will keep all their devices updated with the latest software.

• Examples of scams and attacks and educational material on how staff can avoid these and other key security threats,

• Information on who to notify and how to respond should an employee notice a security concern.

Train staff on best security practices

Building on from the previous point, because human errors are such a prevalent factor in hacks and other cyber attacks it is incredibly important to properly and routinely train staff in proper cybersecurity measures. Even the best social media policy won’t protect an organization should the staff not know how to properly follow or implement it.

Training employees routinely will also give them the opportunity to ask questions, engage and get a sense of the importance of the issue. Additionally, because cybercriminals are constantly evolving their strategies, training is an opportunity to update staff on new threats or examples of current scams.

As an added bonus, social media training also equips your team to use social tools effectively. When employees understand best practices, they feel confident using social media for their work. They’re then well-equipped to use social media for both personal and professional purposes and ultimately your company will see better results.

Limit access and permissions

One of the best ways to keep social accounts secure is to strictly control who has access and the exact permissions they have. Not everyone after all needs the ability to post, not everyone needs the ability to see the stats. And should an individual leave (especially if they leave under a dark cloud) it is important to be able to and remember to revoke their access so that they can’t use the social accounts to cause harm to the company.

Have a designated person in charge

This isn’t just a security concern, having a designated person in charge of and responsible for the running of your social channels will, first of all, ensure consistency but also ensure that someone is constantly on top of and routinely checking the social media security which will go a long way to mitigating any risks.

This person will likely be a senior person on your marketing team. They should maintain a good relationship with your company’s IT department to ensure marketing and IT work together.

Social media monitoring for threat detection

As we have mentioned several times already security threats, especially those around social media accounts are constantly evolving as cybercriminals implement new and innovative new methods for attacks. Using OSINT you can not only closely monitor not only your own social media accounts but the entirety of the web. This will allow for your security team to catch risks as they appear and neutralize potential threats early. 

For example, careful monitoring of social channels will allow you to discover imposter accounts and get them shut down quickly before they can do real damage. It will allow you to spot inappropriate use of your brand by employees or others associated with your company such as a new partner.

The role of OSINT for social media monitoring and corporate security

By monitoring social networks for mentions of your brand and keywords, you’ll know right away when suspicious conversations about your brand emerge. For example, people might be sharing fake coupons or offers, or an imposter account starts tweeting in your name. Using OSINT you can monitor all the relevant activity online regarding your business and quickly identify fraud allowing you to respond to it in a timely fashion.

Additionally, you can use OSINT tools like Signal to monitor not only your social media channels for things like imposters but also for physical threats against employees or branch locations. Moreover, you could monitor for negative emotional sentiment concerning an event you're hosting and identify people who may decide to turn those threats into action.

Finally, OSINT is vital in identifying when one of the above-mentioned risks of social media becomes more than just a threat, when it becomes a reality. Being amongst the first to know when something like this happens allows you to respond quickly and effectively

Conclusion

Social media security threats are constantly changing. Hackers are always coming up with new strategies, and new scams and viruses can emerge at any time. Researchers are now anticipating that advanced attacks against social media networks will be able to leverage a user’s contacts, location, and even business activities. This information can then be used to develop targeted advertising campaigns toward specific users, or even help spark crime in the virtual or real world.

To prevent social media breaches, protect user information, and secure company data, increased vigilance by individual users and regular audits of your social media security measures are necessary to ensure organization security.

Operational Awareness for Improved Supply Chain Risk Management

A supply chain risk can vary broadly, from volatile global politics to natural disasters, from terrorism to DDoS attacks or data breaches. A disruption anywhere along the supply chain could have serious ramifications for business continuity potentially costing an organisation millions. Additionally, the size and scale of operations means that there are often numerous vulnerabilities. 

Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) is an invaluable tool for both security teams and supply chain managers. It allows them to gain oversight over often vast and complex supply chains, monitor risks and threats, and gather real-time data that is essential for coordinating an effective response. 

Many supply chain risks and threats are in association with fears around break downs within logistics operations or supplier disruptions. Additional concerns also relate to financial and legal exposures, uneven market demand for product, mounting competition, and natural disasters.

Protecting Business Continuity from Supply Chain Risks

Even as product complexity expands supply chains continue to stretch into developing countries where labour and natural resources are plenty, but the infrastructure is undeveloped or insufficient. Meanwhile, advanced planning and sourcing practices which aim to maximize efficiency and minimize costs, stretch operations to a point of fragility. 

Any disruption can result in organizations and consumers worldwide feeling the impact via loss of suppliers, delayed or destroyed goods, product release delays, and ultimately, customer dissatisfaction and brand damage.

To mitigate the damage of potential threats, both physical and cyber, specific resources need to be designated with the goal of maintaining business continuity in the face of disruptions. One of the most essential resources for security teams and supply chain managers alike is relevant insights and intelligence to assist in assessing potential supply pitfalls. 

Key Supply Chain Disruptions to Monitor with OSINT

Traffic

Even something as seemingly mundane as traffic can cause havoc with supply chain management as supply chains are heavily reliant on good transportation networks. Security professionals and supply chain managers need to know fast if key transportation networks are endangered.

For example, if a freight hub such as Hong Kong International Airport which sees nearly 3.7 million tons of freight through its gates each year were to encounter a serious disruption the ramifications would be far reaching. It’s not just physical disruptions though that teams need to monitor as cyber attacks can have equally far-reaching consequences.

Weather

It’s hard to predict where and when a tornado, hurricane, severe thunderstorm, or debilitating snowstorm will hit. However, in certain parts of the world such as Southeast Asia, these severe weather events occur more seasonally. 

For example, in 2015, the top 4 typhoon events in Southeast Asia caused an aggregate of over $33.5B in damages, more than 138 days of recovery time, and impacted nearly 7,000 supplier sites. In response to the increased risk of extreme weather events organizations must confront the complexity of their operations and improve visibility to go beyond just their immediate vendors. 

Only when an organisation has a complete picture that incorporates the variety of potential risks and has invested in specific responses and contingency plans can it adapt as needed to mitigate the impact of extreme weather events and maintain strength in the marketplace.

Mergers and acquisitions

A single organisation may work with hundreds of independent suppliers from all over the globe. It’s important to have clear oversight of their operational capabilities as well as retaining an awareness of how global events such as extreme weather or in this scenario a merger or acquisition might affect their output. 

What organisations cannot do is assume the best case scenario. Like other threats mentioned in this article, this supply chain risk is exacerbated by the scope of the operation. A single delayed part, for example, could bring assembly lines to a halt causing a build-up of undelivered orders ultimately resulting in dissatisfied customers and a long-term loss of revenue. 

With potentially hundreds of suppliers and thousands of parts it’s not practical to maintain frequent communications with every single supplier, nor is it possible to manually oversee the entirety of the supply chain. 

Fire and the Unexpected Physical Disruptions

While some events can be predicted and planned against, others can’t. A fire in a warehouse for example. Or as we have seen recently COVID-19 which has caused havoc across supply lines with factories either temporarily shutting down or reducing the scale of their operations with limited workforces.

Such unexpected crises can have a big impact causing costly delays. Organisations need up to date and real-time information on all their respective suppliers if they are to react fast and mitigate the potential financial impact of these supply chain risks.

Cyber Threats

There are multiple threat vectors that cyber attackers could target. And as operations get more complex and they focus increasingly on utilising technology for increased efficiency, these vulnerabilities become progressively more concerning. Attacks could take the form of anything from customer data breach, to leaked information pertaining to sensitive company data or even as in the case of Maersk, a rogue malware completely taking down an organisations IT systems.

Related: Securing the Supply Chain: The Role of OSINT in Logistics

Conclusion

New demands and pressures are constantly stretching supply chains and forcing supply chain managers and security teams to adapt. The stakes are high and security is a critical factor. Major concerns such as an unstable global economy, aggressive market competition, extreme weather conditions, demand volatility, and production failures place revenue growth, reputation and overall business operations at great risk. 

Understanding the nature of potential vulnerabilities and keeping current on disturbances that can impact processes can help teams better handle and mitigate problems related to global supplier concerns, brand protection, and financial risks.

Open Source Intelligence monitoring solutions like Signal enables teams to gain a clear oversight of the entirety of their logistical operations. This means they have details of potential disruptions or cyber-attacks before, or as, they are happening, allowing security teams and supply chain managers to implement their contingency plans in a timely fashion and prevent unnecessary financial losses.

Securing the Supply Chain: the Role of OSINT in Logistics

Supply chain operations can be vast and while globalisation and digital technologies are making the world a smaller place in many ways, they are simultaneously increasing the number of potential vulnerabilities that security teams and supply chain managers need to monitor. Current threats to the logistics sector range from piracy, which has been experiencing a resurgence in recent years, to terrorism, to DDoS attacks, malware or data breaches.

The range of potential threats is exacerbated by the particular vulnerabilities of the supply chain and the sheer size and scope of the operations involved. For example, around 90% of the entirety of global trade flows through only 39 bottleneck regions. An effective attack on any of these 39 traffic heavy logistics hubs would have far-reaching and knock-on consequences impacting billions of dollars worth of trade. 

One example is the Hong Kong - Shenzhen freight cluster where nearly 15% of both container and air freight traffic moves through. Additionally, there is a selection of geographic chokepoints such as the Panama Canal or the Strait of Malacca where a successful attack could effectively halt a vast amount of freight.

If this wasn’t enough digitisation has increased the number of threat vectors that logistics companies need to consider. This increase in vulnerability needs to be addressed with effective security measures such as real-time data collected through Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) software.

How Can Transport and Logistics Companies Secure their Supply Chains?

Ensuring secure passage 

One of the key concerns, and one of the oldest, that logistics and transport companies have to contend with are the tangible and physical security threats; terrorism and piracy being the obvious examples. Organisations need real-time information to carefully and continuously assess the threat level, implications, and risks surrounding these physical security concerns.

Using these analyses organisations can then determine strategies to mitigate these threats as well as determine contingency plans for worst-case scenarios. They will need to be able to adapt and respond quickly to events as risk levels change. Supply chain managers across all industries will need to take into account higher transport costs, longer travel times, and potential problems meeting schedules when alternative transport routes are used

Fundamentally these risk management strategies hinge on having all of the information available on emerging and current threats. To be able to respond in a timely fashion it is absolutely necessary for supply chain managers and security teams to have the most up to date data. Being caught unawares could have far-reaching and even devastating consequences. And in some cases, business models based on time-critical deliveries may be squeezed out of the market. 

Keeping cyber space safe 

Cyber security is a secondary consideration for many logistics and transport companies. However, it is a security concern that should be receiving increasing levels of attention as “cyber criminals are evolving their tradecraft with new innovations and increasingly automating their attacks”, according to the 2020 Global Threat Intelligence Report (GTIR) by NTT Ltd. 

You only have to look back to 2017 for a clear example of what can happen should a logistics operator be caught unaware by malware. In this scenario the shipping giant Maersk had their IT systems taken out by a vicious malware called NotPetya. With roughly one container shipping into port every 15 minutes you can imagine the logistical nightmare that ensued as the company was forced to turn to manual processes to keep things moving. It was estimated that the delayed operations, lost revenue, and the process of completely rebuilding their IT systems cost Maersk upwards of $300 million.

NotPetya, developed by the Russian military, was targeting businesses in Ukraine – but the malware quickly got out of hand. Soon it was spreading around the world, taking down networks and causing billions of dollars in damage and lost revenue. Meaning, in this scenario, Maersk was simply collateral damage.

Despite this, according to The State of Logistics Technology Report 2019 by EFT, “the logistics industry is still not seeing security as a primary part of business operations” even with clear examples of what can happen. In this report, researchers surveyed more than 500 industry professionals with questions relating to cybersecurity and found: 

• Only 35% of solutions/service providers have a Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) in place;

• Only 43% of shipping companies have a CISO;

• Only 21% of logistics companies believe they even need a CISO.

Transportation is already heavily reliant on Information Communication Technology (ICT), and virtual threats are growing in frequency and complexity. For this reason, cyber threats are an increasingly worrisome problem across multiple industries. Additionally, for transportation and logistics cyber attacks as part of an attack designed to induce physical damage is an additional attack vector of increasing commonality.

OSINT Software for a More Secure Future

Some organisations operate with hundreds of individual suppliers. Disruption to any of these suppliers anywhere along the supply chain could have costly ramifications. Maersk is just one example of this, operations weren’t returned to normal for nearly two weeks, and even with employees across the company going above and beyond to maintain operational efficiencies, losses for customers and themselves quickly climbed into the millions.

Security investments provide a payback not only in terms of loss prevention but also by enhancing supply chain performance. When it comes to security and supply chain management, it’s especially important to look at future scenarios and manage security proactively. Reacting to crisis situations is not enough. Companies have to find the right combination of preventive and reactive measures to achieve the optimal level of supply chain security. 

Executives should keep an eye on so-called wildcard events too. That means looking at the possible financial impact, the relative vulnerability of their business model and their company’s ability to react to low-probability, high-impact events. 

How Signal is Already Helping Secure Logistics Supply Chains

• Signal alerts a customer to a suppliers merger. They are able to establish new suppliers for those specific parts in a timely fashion preventing disruption and revenue loss.

• Signal provides data on severe weather warnings that affect multiple suppliers and disrupt transportation routes.

• Confidential data is found for sale on the dark web allowing the organisation to take actions for threat mitigation fast.

Signal Open Source Intelligence software allows you to gather hyper-relevant real-time data giving users a clear oversight of their often vast supply chain operations. 

This means they will have details of potential disruptions or cyber-attacks before, or as, they are happening allowing them to implement their contingency plans in a timely fashion and prevent unnecessary financial losses.